DD's Primary School HT Suspended...

Does anyone know how long it takes for a situation like this to be resolved? HT suspended approximately 3-4 weeks ago, but only acknowledged by the school as being away for 'personal reasons' and that they are unable to comment further. LEA have been contacted by another parent but can't comment either.

Gossiping in the playground (not just at DD's school) is going into pretty damaging overdrive, some children have been removed and other parents are thinking of removing their child(ren) as well. We just want to know what's going on and when it will all settle down.

I think there's probably an enormous variation in how long it takes for info to come out, depending on what's happened, what the investigation involves etc.

A primary school head here was suspended around last Christmas time, and eventually sacked in the summer (for bullying). There were various rumours, but full info could only been given out once the investigation had concluded.

Why are people in such a rush to remove children? Who is acting head? If it was a decent school until a few weeks ago its unlikely to change too much overnight, especially if its being run by the existing smt.

Agree thought that it's likely to be months before matters fully resolved

Thank you. Until fairly recently (before the current HT took over) the school was performing extremely badly. The HT was/is very driven to achieving an 'excellent' rating, but is not very popular with parents or staff (trying to put this diplomatically!)

I have no qualms about keeping DD at the school unless something drastic happens as she's settled and happy there, but a number of parents - myself included - are concerned about the way certain incidents have not been handled since the HT's suspension.

The school emphasises a need for transparency - both from the school itself and the parents, but as parents, we feel we're being kept in the dark and treated like children ourselves. Other parents at different schools seem to know more about what's going on than we do - and it's our children who are stuck in the middle of all this.

Because the head is rightly entitled to confidentiality, there is no way that the governing body should/could say precisely why the head has been suspended. Sometimes they are able to give a rough idea I.e. "there might be financial irregularity" or "there has been an allegation unrelated to safeguarding or children". But as a general rule the GB would be wrong to go into specifics because if the suspension is pending investigation it would be wholly unfair on the head teacher for the details of the suspension to be made public - what if he is reinstated but the mud sticks?

I know a teacher (personally) who was suspended (and subsequently reinstated). Thankfully the details of the allegation and fact he had been suspended were able to be kept quiet and not gossiped about because upon being cleared he was able to resume his teaching without whispering campaign.

Thanks, Pooka. The trouble is, there already is a whispering campaign - with some allegations/speculation being more outrageous than others - and I can completely understand why the HT should be entitled to confidentiality, but we do feel that there should be some 'damage limitation' being done by the school in the meantime... They seem to be focusing attention on areas that are not necessary and ignoring more important aspects of safeguarding the children.

I feel the main concern among parents is without someone fairly strong-minded and decisive leading the school, it could revert to its previous standards, which were pretty notorious!

I think what OP's asking for - completely reasonably - isn't so much info about why the HT has been suspended, but information as to what the arrangements for leadership now are in the school, and specific action regarding the safeguarding complaints she mentions.

How do you know he's been suspended if the school are saying personal reasons?

I have experience of this as my dc's head was away for "personal reasons" for a term. I now know it was genuinely that, not saying what, but it was a perfectly valid "personal reason".

The playground gossip stated with total certainty:1. he'd been dragged out of school by the police on the inset day and his office was surrounded by police tape.2. He'd fiddled the accounts and legged it with some of the money3. he'd rented the school hall out over the summer to a family member at a reduced price4. He had been seen acting as an OFSTED inspector at local rival schools5. he'd applied for the head position at another local school and wasn't coming back6. He'd attacked the deputy head7. He'd had an affair with a member of the office staff...

That was just the ones I was told with confidence by someone who claimed to have it by someone "in the know". Some of these I heard several times. None of them was true, although number 5 was still rattling round last year a couple of years later.

I think my child attends this school, and I have to agree with the OP. There is a terrible sense of panic and confusion, both with the staff and parents, and nothing is being said. I do know that the HT has definitely been suspended, and I am not expecting detailed information as to why, however since this, there has been several worrying health and safety incidents and tbh it is making many parents feeling very uneasy. It seems that the school is "lost" and in a state of no direction with several knee jerk decisions being made and not all of them the right ones...we are after all sending our most precious children to them and I for one am not wholly convinced that if there was an incident it would be dealt with to my child's benefit...